Beyond 'Final Exit' (eBook)

Beyond ‘Final Exit’ (eBook)

Lessons Learned: Feedback from the bestselling book now 20 years in print

by Derek Humphry
author of 'Final Exit' &
founder of the Hemlock Society

First Edition • October 2011
25 Pages • PDF eBook
Price: $5.00
ERGO/Norris Lane Press
ISBN 978-0-9768283-5-8 / 0976828359

Available ONLY through the ERGO-Store in downloadable digital format. Not available in Bookstores.

eBook Description:

The runaway bestseller ‘Final Exit’ brought its author a huge response of readers writing him with their own experiences with dying and death, sometimes involving voluntary euthanasia, assisted suicide or self-deliverance. Now, twenty years after the initial appearance of that remarkable and pioneering book, Derek Humphry relates what additionally he has learned since.

This short ebook does not describe any new means or methods for peacefully ending one’s life; rather it emphasizes the need for planning and caring, and thoughtful conduct for a dying person and their family. Hasty, poorly considered ending of life is anathema to Humphry’s philosophy. ‘Beyond Final Exit’ discusses, for instance, ways in which a family could deal with a difficult dying process, the role of doctors, and whom to tell once the passing has occurred. A potted history of the famous Hemlock Society is included, as is a description of the work of Dignitas, in Switzerland, currently the only group in the world which will help foreigners to die.

What we have learned from the unique Death With Dignity laws in Oregon and Washington, permitting physician-assisted suicide for the dying, is discussed. Includes a listing of the nine places which by 2011 have made law reforms to permit assisted dying.

Humphry, the author of the cult classic ‘Jean’s Way’ and three other books on euthanasia, discusses the present and controversial future of the right-to-die movement which today involves the considered suicide of persons who are old and permanently sick, thus tired of life, and seek a speedy end. Perhaps, he argues, this should be made lawful after careful consideration because violent elderly suicide is already a national tragedy.